


Sam's Family Reunion Disaster

by AgentMal



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bad Parenting, Derogatory Language, Family Drama, Gen, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29121600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMal/pseuds/AgentMal
Summary: Sam goes home to visit with family for the first time in a long time. What could go wrong?
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for the following BTB squares:  
> Chapter 1: Bad Parenting  
> Chapter 2: Boob Discussion  
> Chapter 3: Normalizes Trans* Lives  
> Chapter 4: Women as "Whores"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam doesn't see his extended family often, and interactions with one particular clan elder has him remembering why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTB fill for the square Bad Parenting

The rental is making noise when Sam finally puts it in park. All told, the non-descript Toyota has been good to him. Hundreds of miles, few stops and a significant amount of speeding when he felt he could get away with it meant he arrived only one day late instead of three to his Nana’s juneteenth celebration. 

He’s only one step out of the car when he’s greeted by several young faces, only three of which are familiar. 

“Uncle Sam!” 

“You came! Mom said you–”

“No fucking way– you’re related to–”

The tallest of the group, and his aunt Mimi’s son, is a thick faced teen with dark glasses and a mischievous smile he remembers from previous holiday get togethers. Sam greets Jeremiah ‘Jay-Jay’ Wilson with a hug and a dap. Then he goes through the growing crowd of what must be all the kids in his extended family and their friends. Hugs for the girls, daps or handshakes for the guys. He lets the chatter and exclamations wash over him with a smile and a bit of patience. 

This is the first time he’s seeing his extended family since he met Captain America, took down HYDRA and went off-grid to chase after another recovering assassin super soldier. He can only imagine what they had been hearing or thought was going on. Thankfully his patience pays off and soon the adults, previously in the house or perched around the porch area take notice of his entrance and help him disperse the crowd of teens and kids so he could actually enter the house. The reception from the adults is significantly less excited. As he greets aunts, uncles, cousins and their spouses, many of whom he didn’t really know he wonders why he’s even here.

Aunt Grace stops him in the living room and Sam is reminded of one of the main reasons he and his mom rarely visited. 

“Samuel, when Nana said you were coming I didn’t believe it.” It doesn’t sound like she wanted him to either. Sam opts to be the bigger person. 

“Nana called and asked, I had to.”

“Is it… safe for you to be here? There’s been some wild news lately about you and those men you’ve been running with.” Aunt Grace’s smile is a touch more malicious and Sam bites his tongue. Before he can answer however, another voice interrupts the back and forth.

“Of course it’s safe, not like any of us will be telling his business, now will we?” Nana’s voice floats over all of them like a gentle warning and Sam’s shoulders relax a quarter. He turns to face the reason for his visit and grins wide. 

“I’m here, Nana!” It’s not necessary but he can’t resist the long running joke from when he was old enough for her to carry him and would always announce his arrival. It’s worth it to see her smile and hear the exasperated laughter the joke deserved.

Sam is treated to a second round of introductions, more spirited now as Nana explains how the gathered crowd are all related to him. He’s fighting laughter and losing, listening to Nana explain which cousin and uncles *weren’t* on her shit list when they all hear the sound of something crashing and breaking. The sound comes from the outside porch area where some of the kids were gathered. Most of the adults in the house don’t stir but Sam catches sight of Aunt Grace marching to the main doorway and loses most of his mirth. 

Aunt Grace has two children — an adult son and a preteen she often lorded over — thus she considered herself the foremost expert on child rearing and discipline. She also wasn’t actually blood related to Sam; her daughter-like relationship with his grand aunt, Nana’s sister, meant she was always included. Like clockwork, the woman’s shouting breaks the easy ambiance of the afternoon. Sam’s frown is reflected on his Nana’s face but she doesn’t interfere, and they’re all forced to listen to Aunt Grace berate the kids on the porch. It reminds Sam of summers where he had been one of the unlucky kids having fun and then getting yelled at by her. He says to Nana, “She hasn’t changed one bit huh?” 

Nana doesn’t answer, and Sam isn’t expecting her to. Not long after, Nana retreats to the kitchen area but the shouting doesn’t stop. It’s enough to ruin Sam’s mood, enough to make him actually investigate whatever was so damn serious. 

What he finds is a mixed group of five or six kids, one of which he recognized from earlier. He remembers the preteen’s face because he expected them to want a dab or handshake but they’d gone for a hug instead. Unsurprisingly, after going on as long as she has, Aunt Grace’ tirade is no longer about the broken window (or was it a vase?). 

It’s very difficult to not interrupt, to wait for her to catch her breath and then interject. Only experience from past altercations keeps Sam’s mouth shut. But the minute she pauses, Sam says, “Who knows where to find a broom and mop?” 

He directs his question to the kids.

One of the youngest in the group answers when the others don’t. Sam smiles and nods, then points, “You and you, go get the broom and mop. You–” he points at the face he recognizes but can’t put a name to, “–Go get Jay-Jay, Nana wants to see him.” Not a lie, the food would be done soon and the kids have to be organized into something less rowdy. It was usually the eldest amongst them’s job to help.

He’s getting ready to give the rest some instructions when Aunt Grace, steaming at his gall all the while he’s been talking interrupts, “I wasn’t finished, Samuel. Don’t go putting your nose where it doesn’t belong. These crazy kids broke–” 

Sam’s temper flares. “Let them clean up the mess before someone hurts themselves.”

“I’m not finished! I told them to be careful but did they listen? No! Now instead of letting me–”

“Enough.” A gruff voice cuts through the chatter and Sam turns to see who dared interrupt Aunt Grace when she was going on. It’s one of the ‘uncles’ he’d been introduced to earlier, Aunt Grace’s new husband if he remembers right. New because this was the first time Sam was meeting him, but presumably he’d been around for years. 

Miraculously, that’s all it takes to shut her up, for now anyway. Sam shoots a grateful look the man’s way and the kids all take that as their cue to scram.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam just wants to pass the time until dinner chatting sports with the guys, but can't stand by some of them policing a teenager's clothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fill for the BTB square Boob Discussion

Sam takes a few minutes to supervise the cleanup before heading back into the house. He’s making a beeline for the kitchen area where he saw Nana last when someone comes up to him. First glance points to either a spouse or distant uncle he doesn’t recognize. Sam offers a friendly smile as they shake hands. 

“Hey man, I’m Josiah. I think my wife is your cousin twice removed or something.” Brown eyes crinkle in their attempt to remember and Sam shrugs. 

“We’re all related to Nana somehow.” As long as she kept track of it he didn’t have to. 

“She’s definitely the common denominator.” Josiah responds still in that friendly manner and the conversation turns into a discussion about their respective favorites for the upcoming season. As if on cue, a few of the other men previously hanging around the edges of the living and dining room approach them to insert their own two cents.

In between friendly insults, commiserating, and chatter he gathers all their names. Josiah, Mick, Amanté, Dwane. Aunt Grace’s husband also joins them but Sam doesn’t get his name. 

He hasn’t said much, simply listening, so Sam asks, “You have any favorites this year?” 

He’s just trying to be friendly, pass time till they get to eat. 

The man doesn’t answer and after an awkward silence, Amanté says, “Don’t mind Emeal, he doesn’t talk much.”

“With a wife like that, I wouldn’t either.” Mick snarks blithely and a few of the guys chuckle. 

Sam has his opinions but he keeps them to himself, preparing to extricate himself and head for the kitchen for a snack or rebuke—he’s not sure what it’ll be yet— but he stops when the train of conversation changes.

“Hey, Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Josiah steps away from their cluster to intercept someone who had been about to pass them.

“Outside? Why what’s wrong? Nana told me I didn’t have to help.” 

“What happened to the top you were wearing?”

“It’s too hot, I took it off.”

“Well, you need to put it back on.” 

“What?! Dad you can’t be serious, it’s like ninety degrees!” 

“I don’t care, you wore it just fine before.” 

Sam zeroes on the newest subject, a teen maybe thirteen or fourteen and for a moment he doesn’t see what the issue is. She’s wearing a green tank top and jeans. 

“Now, Josiah—” one of the other men starts to say but gets quiet when Josiah shoots him a look. 

Sam clears his throat, “Most of the kids out there aren’t wearing anything but shorts.” 

Josiah rounds on him and Sam’s jaw clenches.

“I’m talking to my daughter, Sam.”

“I can see that.” The room around them has gone silent. 

“Is there a problem with me telling my own daughter to put her shirt back on?” Josiah’s tone dares him to disagree and Sam makes the choice to be blunt.

“She’s a kid. What’s the problem with what she’s wearing?”

“W-What’s the problem?! It’s indecent, she shouldn’t be running around here half-dressed.”

“She has on a tank top like most of the kids outside.” Sam won’t let that fact go. 

Sam hasn’t seen Aunt Grace approach but suddenly she’s there, saying, “Those kids don’t have breasts the size of a grown woman’s now do they?”

Sam grits his teeth, considering his next words very carefully. “This is a family event, if anyone here is looking at her wrong they shouldn’t be here.” Sam speaks as evenly as he can, well aware that some of the people here had no relation by blood but emphasizing the ‘family’ part anyway. It wasn’t this poor girl’s fault that the adults around her were _sexualizing_ her body. 

They seem to enter a stalemate with Sam standing on one side, Aunt Grace and Josiah on the other. The subject of their argument hasn’t moved from the spot where her father stopped her but she looks about ready to bolt. Suddenly he feels like an ass, maybe he was making a big deal out of nothing. 

A voice floats from over the kitchen, “What’s going on out here?”

Nana steps out, a tray in one hand and a jug of iced tea in the other. 

Aunt Grace speaks first, “It’s nothing Nana, just a little misunderstanding. Amelia go put on a shirt before you catch something.”

“In this weather?” Nana’s gaze sweeps over all of them and then focuses on Amelia.  
“Amelia baby, where have you been hiding? Come here, let me see you. You want some iced tea?” 

Seeing the diffusion for what it is, Sam doesn’t say anything and Amelia dutifully steps forward. Nana sets the tray of snacks and jug of iced tea on the nearest table then ushers Amelia back into the kitchen with her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTB fill for Normalizes Trans* Lives

By the time Sam gets his food it’s approaching late afternoon and everyone who was going to make it to the family get-together has arrived. As much as he wants to be low-key and mind himself, he can’t turn people away when they approach him. He can however make it clear he’s not down to talk about what he’s been up to lately in any sort of detail. Most people accept it but there’s always an asshole. 

“So how many super soldiers does the government have running around Sammy? Can’t be just Captain America, I saw them videos people put up.” 

The question comes from a relative he’s already forgotten the name of but marks now to avoid in the future.

“Uhh, I wouldn’t know.”

“So, what do you know? You were smack dab in the middle of it!” His exclamation draws some chuckles and emboldens someone else to say, “All that footage that got released, it’s not all real right? Can’t be, it’s too complete.” 

Sam’s hands previously playing with a fork, sets it down. “It’s real.”

“Of course _you_ think it’s real.” The same person, a woman with thick glasses and a face that looked vaguely like his mom’s, continues: “That’s what they want us to believe. I heard most of those videos are fake, you can do anything with a computer these days. Makes you wonder what they’re really hiding.” 

Sam doesn’t have anything to say to that. It’s not the first time he’s heard something similar, either. He stands up and excuses himself, plate and utensils in hand. There’s a few people in the kitchen and one of them soon takes his dirty dishes away and shoos him back out. One look at the table he left and the options of either Spades (he sucked at Spades), a game of Jeopardy on the television, or further gossip with uninformed family members, and he finds himself heading out of the house.

Outside is cooler now that the sun’s setting. Sam picks a direction and starts walking, nothing more on his mind than walking off the food he just ate. He passes some teens huddled around a rundown shed and pretends not to see one of them frantically hiding what he’s certain is a joint. The memories of teenage years where he would be the one hiding from an incoming aunty or uncle brings a smirk to his lips. He does one loop and then two around the house property before he notices a second group. 

Unlike the first, which had been composed of boys, this group is all girls. He doesn’t notice anything else about the group till an unfortunate voice calls over. “Nehemiah!”

Aunt Grace’s voice carries over the distance from the house porch and the group of girls untangle and a familiar face walks forward. It’s the preteen from earlier, the one that went for a hug instead of a handshake like he thought they would. Something clicks for him as he watches them hug one of the girls in the group goodbye. A chorus of, “Bye, Nene!” Following as they stride away.

Suddenly he remembers an old memory, years ago during a holiday gathering. One of the baby boys would always hang around the kitchen, their name started with an N. Was this the same kid? As he’s puzzlin it out the teen walks past where he's been standing and Sam smiles their way, noticing all the things he hadn’t before about their eyes and jaw. Maybe he had been a little oblivious, but then no one else had pointed it out the whole time he was around. None of the adults he had just been catching up with for hours had brought it up, and none of the kids he noticed seemed to care, including the girls Nene just said goodbye to.

Sam pretends not to be watching closely when the teen finally reaches where Aunt Grace is on the porch. He can’t quite hide his surprise when the woman starts to fuss over their skirt, wrinkled from a day of activity. Then he swallows his surprise for something happier. This kid being who they are _should_ be this much of a nonevent. He hadn’t expected that of his family, and for it he feels a pang of shame. But he’s also happy. He doesn’t stop watching till the two, soon joined by Aunt Grace’s husband, Emeal, disappear into their car.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After most people have left, Sam has a quiet conversation with his Nana.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTB fill for Women as "Whores"

“You know you don’t always have to butt heads with Grace.” Nana murmurs over the cup she’s been holding for the last hour. The cup is long drained but Nana continues holding it anyway.

She and Sam are reclining in the sitting room on a couch that he helped her pick out since the last one had been older than he was and on it’s last leg. 

“I know… She just works my nerves, Nana. You hear what she said earlier, didn’t you? About Josiah’s kid.” Sam specifies even though he knows Nana knows who he’s talking about.

“I did… and I understand where she’s coming from.” It doesn’t sound like Nana would be taking a side on the matter. She hadn’t said a word to any of them about their earlier argument and Amelia had remained indoors most of the day—without the shirt she’d arrived in. 

“Why is she like that? Always lecturing people, always yelling?” It’s a genuine question.

In response, Nana just sighs. Her eyes close briefly and Sam waits. 

“She and your mother grew up in a different time.” Nana begins, and Sam leans in a little closer as if it would let him hear better.

“Leona never let anyone tell her what was what. She did her own thing, damn everybody else…. Even your father.” Nana’s face crinkles in a smile as if remembering a fond memory. Meanwhile Sam goes through what his mother herself has told him about her younger years, it wasn’t much. 

“But your aunt Grace… Well, she was different. She’s more sensitive to people’s opinions, more sensitive to the things your mother has always shaken off.” 

Sam’s mother didn't get along with Aunt Grace. Despite the two growing up together, if one was at a family function you probably wouldn’t be seeing the other. 

“I still don’t get it.” Sam doesn’t doubt things were different back then but what did it have to do with Aunt’s Grace behavior _now_?

“There was an incident, when the two where in … Junior High? Maybe the first year of high school, I don’t remember these details so well anymore.” Nana starts to set the cup down and Sam reaches to help, setting it away on the nearby coffee table. 

“What sort of incident?” Sam questions, thinking it must have been big to divide the two sisters for years after.

“Well they never told me the particulars, but the story spread around and the jist of it was: Your aunt had been talking to a boy, maybe dating at the time. Anyways his father got wind of it—and assumed certain things about Grace because of the rumors that were following your mother at the time. So one day, when Grace went up to meet the boy, this father stomped out and proceeded to insult poor Grace. Calling her all manner of names, but the one that stuck—” Nana inhales, and Sam fights the urge to offer her some water or more tea. No coddling, that was Nana’s main stipulation with all her children. 

“--He called your aunt a whore. Mind you, Grace probably hadn’t been in a relationship before that point. But that man used some stories people were spreading about your mother to label Grace. I don’t have to tell you how cruel people can be when a label like that sticks to someone.” She didn’t. 

“Did she blame my mom?” Sam assumes that’s what happened.

“She did. They got into a nasty row about it, slinging insults and names at each other. Then after… Grace, separated completely from Leona, no mutual friends, nothing.” 

Sam listens but doesn’t know what to say to that. To him, it seemed like a silly thing to be upset about, but like Nana said things were different back then. The same rumors his mom never paid mind apparently made his aunt ostracize her own sister. 

“She’s not perfect but she’s gotten better, don’t be too hard on her.” Nana goes on to say and Sam thinks back to Nehemiah. 

“Grace’s 2nd kid… are they uh… trans?” He feels awkward for asking confirmation, he’s almost certain they were.

“Nene is a girl, she’s always been one. Even Grace couldn’t deny it.” Nana speaks firmly and something in Sam’s chest releases.

“Did anyone give her trouble?” He asks and Nana snorts.

“Not if they don’t want some trouble.” The response makes Sam smile.


End file.
